After three years of
play and with only one game remaining, the 25th World Championship Final has a
winner and New World Champion, GM Fabio Finocchiaro from Italy!Fabio Finocchiaro is 73
years old and lives in a village on the island of Sicily. Fabio
alone among the seventeen contestants used postcards to transmit his moves
while everyone else used email. Nevertheless he finished all his
games on time. There is still one game remaining, but it does not affect first
place. Finocchiaro's games from the 25th World
Championship have not yet been released so here is a win from the 15th World
Championship Final against the US's Robert Reynolds.RICHTER-VERESOV ATTACK
(B01)

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5
Nbd7 4.Nf3 g6In this way Fabio sidesteps the passive ...e6 in
favor of a more flexible piece arrangement.5.e3 Bg7 6.Be2This small step of the
Bishop instead of the usual 6. Bd3 was a Reynolds specialty, he having played
it many times in top competition. 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.h3
Re8With the goal of ...e5
so White is forced to backtrack with 9. Bf4 or start center action with 9.
Ne5. 9.Bf4After 9. Ne5 Nxe5 10.
dxe5 Nd7 11. f4 Qb6 12. Qc1 f6, Black stands better.9...b6 10.Ne5 Nxe5Finocchiaro accepts the
challenge. In previous games (Reynolds-Osterman, Algeria
Jubilee 1993 for one instance) Reynolds had faced only 10...Bb7 11.Bxe5 Bh6At first sight an odd
move, but Back wants to play ...Nd7 and ...e5 without exchanging Bishops.12.Bf3 Nd7 13.Bf4!?And White crosses Black's
plan as now 13...Bg7 is met by 14. e4! when White has the initiative in the
center. Black has to settle for a slight structural weakness in
White's position.13...Bxf4 14.exf4 Ba6
15.Re1 e6 16.Ne2 Rc8 17.c3 Qf6After 17...Bxe2 the
middlegame is even.18.Qd2 c5 19.g4White's justification
for this move is that Black is gaining the initiative on the queenside, but it
might have been better to just sit and wait.19...Rc7 20.Ng3?!And now White abandons
the queenside. Better was 20. Rad1 to meet ...cxd4 with Nxd4 and
dynamic equality.20...cxd4 21.cxd4 Rec8
22.f5Of course White can now
not challenge the c-file as the f or d-Pawn will fall and so must continue his
kingside operations. 22...Rc2 23.Qf4 Nf8
24.g5 Qd8 25.f6 h6!Fabio demonstrates world championship defensive
qualities -- Black defends against White playing h4, h6; h5! breaking open the
Black kingside and Qh4-h6 and Qg7 mate. 26.h4 Rxb2 27.Rac1 Rbc2
28.Rxc2 Rxc2 29.Re5 Nd7 30.h5!?" It may be desperation,
but it's all I've got," may be the attitude, and what White was thinking, but
otherwise it's resignation. 30...hxg5 31.Rxg5 Qxf6 32.Qe3The endgame is easy
after 32. Qxf6 Nxf6 33. hxg6 fxg634. Rxg6+ Kf7 and a2 falls.32...Rc3 33.Rxg6+ Qxg6 34.Qxc3 Qd3 35.Qc7 Qxf3
36.Qxd7 Bc4 37.a4Similar to the game is
37. Qxa7 Qd1+ 38. Kg2 Qxd437...Qf6 38.Qxa7 Qxd4 39.Qe7 Qf4 40.Qd8+ Kg7
41.h6+ Kh7The last trap --
41...Kxh6? 42. Qh8+ Kg6 43. Qg8+ Kf6 44. Qd8+ is a draw.42.Qxb6 d4 1-0 White concedes. After
43. Qc5 the game might have continued 43...Bd5! 44. Qf8 Qc1+ 45. Nf1 Qg5+ 46.
Ng3 f5! 47. Qf7+ Kxh6 48. Qf8+ Qg7 with a Black win.

DIFFERENCES BETWEENCC ANDOTB

1. The food
is better.2. Time
pressure is measured in days, not minutes.3. Take a
break to watch "The Daily Show"4. MCO !5. The trip
home is already over.6. A nap in
the middle of the game is not always a bad idea.7. Always
your choice of chess sets8. Analysis
is deeper when you can physically move the pieces.9. "J'adoube"
is unnecessary.10. Penmanship
counts !

Ernie Blair is
interested in possibly buying (at a reasonable price) your collection
of old chess cards. Ernie would like to preserve these artifacts of
an earlier day. Contact Ernie at [email protected]

GAME OF THE YEAR AWARD

Two prizes of $100 are
given to the winners, Master and non-Master, of the best game published in "The
Check" in 2012. Winners should contact Joan DuBois.

In the Master category -
Dan Woodard for his game against David Porter from October's "The Check".

CENTER COUNTER (B01)

In the non-Master
division, the winner is Edward Addis from March 2012.

SICILIAN DEFENSE (B23)

OBITUARY

W. John Lutes was born
January 2, 1938, died January 3, 2013. John, Master level OTB,
was an adherent to the Weaver Adams school of US chess - attack, attack, always
attack ! and was the author of nine opening chess books that encouraged that
attitude. In 1964 John drew a simultaneous game against Bobby Fischer. John
worked as a neurological respiratory therapist in Peoria, Illinois. He
abandoned OTB play in 1979 due to his strenuous job requirements. His
final illness caused him to twice withdraw from postal play, but always the optimist
that a good attacker must be, John kept coming back.

KING'S GAMBIT (C39)

The hero of this piece
is White's h-Pawn that dies just before reaching the promised land.

The 2013 event
will be the only USCF event where computer engine use is allowed. A prize fund
for the event has been established thanks to the generosity of David
Sogin, James Sawaski, Joan DuBois, John Menke, USCF, Keith Rodriguez, Robert
Rizzo, and Corky Schakel.

Quote: Probably it is correct to say that a true
understanding of chess is the main thing in correspondence play, whereas a
quick and sure "sight of the board" is the main thing over the board.
-- Cecil Purdy

LEARN CHESS BY MAIL ! Lessons given by mail,
telephone, ICC - many different ways. I specialize in players rated
800-2100 who would like to improve their game. Contact me for
information. Alex Dunne, 324 West Lockhart St., Sayre, PA 18840 or [email protected]

THE ABSOLUTE
CORRESPONDENCE CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE UNITED STATES CHESS FEDERATION 1976-2010

is now available at
McFarland Publishers and Amazon for $45.00 and also Kindle at $16.49

NEW! 2006
Electronic Knights Championship ebook. 190 games some annotated, all
the crosstables, bios of the top three, list of all the finalists, ChessBase
format, .pgn notation and Microsoft .pdf format. $4.00
postage paid for the disk, $2.00 sent to you via email.

A tale wherein a mobile,
dancing Queen defeats three clumsy pieces.

EVANS GAMBIT (C51)

All the action occurs on
the queenside in this final game of the now defunct Express Tournaments.

QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED
(D35)

Lasker defined chess as
a fight. Here is proof!

KING'S INDIAN DEFENSE
(E97)

White's pieces find all
the right squares in this game.

CARO-KANN DEFENSE (B18)

Schultheis tries to fit some new wine in an old bottle, but, alas! It
is still not fit to drink.